Friday, October 28, 2011

Christmas is less than 2 months away. It's past time to be doing your shopping, and decoration making. I found this lovely angel pattern to crochet and felt it would be quick enough to make that I would put it up here for those last minute crafters. These little angels would really be cute included in your Christmas cards you mail to friends and family far away. They could be hung on the tree to remind the recipients of you. I found this pattern on Craft Town and I invite you to visit this site for more wonderful ideas for crafts.
==========================================================================

Christmas Angel Ornament

Designed by Crafts by Starlight
All Rights Reserved

Fill your Tree with hand-made Ornaments! This Christmas Angel is a simple and easy ornament to make. Great for Gifts especially sending them through the mail for family that are a distance from you.
Materials: Autn Lydia's Classic Crochet thread -Size 10; Red, Green, and white Thread. Hook Size 1.8 mm, and Fabric Stiffener.

Take all four separate pieces and stiffen with Fabric stiffener and let dry. Take two wings and arrange them touching together at the base and glue the base/bottom of the head on the top part of wings as seen in picture. Then place Christmas Dress on top of the base of wings and glue down. Now you are finished!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Well, I have been following Sharon Tomlinson at Norah's and I have been intrigued by the process she is using to paint over magazine pictures to get a completely different picture. I have a huge stack of cardboard from work. These are 81/2x11 because they are the cardboard at the bottom of the packs of forms we use at work. Usually we just throw them out, but I started saving them and in a month had more than I will ever use.

Anyway, I pasted pictures on the cardboard and then painted over it. I have to say it is not as easy as she makes it look. I will need to practice and practice some more to ever be satisfied with this artform, but it was pretty fun and I had no expectations, so I could just have fun! At least I finally got back to the paint table. I think tomorrow I will try another. But in the meantime, here's what I did:

Can you tell that I started with a close-up of a man's face? I can, but I just wonder if anyone else can. She is certainly no beauty, but I am pleased with her. I really enjoyed the collage of her hair.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Here is a tutorial that just blew me away. I found it on FaveCrafts and just knew I had to repost it here for you to try. This would make everyone stand and take notice agains a boat-necked black dress!

I think I may have to make this to give at Christmas to one of my special friends who loves to dress up and dress fancy. She will absolutely love this and look divine in it!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How do you make fabric rosettes? Find out with this tutorial, then arrange them into a chic pearl rosette bib necklace, perfect for a specialoccasion like your wedding day. This feminine necklace is so simple to make!Materials:

Tie an overhand knot in the center of a strip of fabric. Hold the fabric at the knot with two tails together. Twist a short section of the two tails. Wrap it around the knot, which will be the center point of the rosette. Tack in place with glue. Continue wrapping and tacking until rosette is the size you want. Repeat for four more rosettes.

Lay the rosettes on the felt. Loosely trace with pencil. Cut felt a bit smaller than the traced line. Cut out.

Glue rosettes to felt. Folding pieces of tulle in half, glue them under and around rosettes. Glue buttons as rosette centers and accents.

Cut two lengths of chain to make the necklace the needed length. Glue the end of one chain on the back of the necklace piece at the top left. Repeat with other chain at top, back right.

Use jump rings to attach toggle pieces to loose ends of chain.

Tips:

Refer to photo for placement and assembly.

Cut tulle into 2” x 6” pieces.

Cut or tear white fabric into 2” strips. The length of the fabric will determine the diameter of the rosette. Make them any size you desire.

When tacking rosette with glue, use a tiny amount, trying not to let it show on the surface of the rosette.

when gluing chain to necklace, use a lot of glue. Let it dry before continuing.

Using a jump ring: grab ends of jump ring at either side of cut with pliers. Twist ring open. String through loop of toggle clasp. Twist tightly closed.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Image via WikipediaI was watching an old Carol Duvall show recently and one of the shows was a beautiful young woman who made perfume. I just sat, with my mouth open, as she made perfume, cologne, bath splashes and scented powder right before my eyes.

Here is how she did it:

You will need:

1. Start with 100 proof Vodka--no other kind will work
2. Get you perfume oils either at a body shop or online
3. You need small glass bottles to store your perfume in--if they are clear, plan to cover the bottle with something.
4. Glass eyedroppers

How to do it:

Perfume -- start with 2 ounces of vodka in your small glass bottle; to this add 60 drops of your perfume oil (you will want to mix scents, but only a total of 60 drops); shake it up. Voila!!!

Bath Splash -- start with 4 ounces of vodka; to this add 1 teaspoon of glycerine; add drops of food coloring (optional); to all of this add 15 drops of perfume oil and shake up.

Scented powder -- take a 1/4 cup of cornstarch in a bowl; add about a teaspoon of mixed perfume from above; sprinkle it all over and then stir to break up the clumps. You will let this set out in the bowl overnight and in the morning restir the mix. Now you are ready to put your scented powder into a cheese sprinkler glass bottle.

Not bad, huh? I'm off to Whole Foods to pick up some perfume oils and the liquor store for my Vodka!

Feedjit

About Me

As a psychiatric nurse for the last 20 years, I have seen many changes
in the way we, as a population, view and respond to those we deem
"mentally ill".
I know that anyone, anywhere can be affected by mental illness, just
like anyone, anywhere can become diabetic. I know that we need to treat
these people as we, ourselves, would want to be treated.